


Pick Me Out From The Crowd

by IdlePace



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff and Humor, M/M, use of strong language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-03
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-02-15 23:16:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2247021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IdlePace/pseuds/IdlePace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xephos tries to be serious and professional but is constantly thrown out of the character he wants to display by a certain individual.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pick Me Out From The Crowd

“Xephos…” A paused breath tightened the situation, “I’m pregnant.”

Snivels echoed through the perched Bluetooth strapped to the man’s ear. Xephos held air longer in his lungs, findings his words, “Ridge, what the hell are you talking about?” Xephos snarled adjusting the piece of technology.

“I ate your leftover burrito and I’m really starting to feel the effects now! I think I’m going to give birth!” Ridge groaned loudly distorting the phone’s sound.

“You phoned to tell me about your bowel movements? God Ridge I don’t need this right now! I’m about to talk in front of hundreds of people and you think that _this_ sort of thing is appropriate ten minutes before hand?”

Acute silence welcomed the conversing pair as Xephos hiked his mail carrier bag higher up his shoulder, “Do you know how important this is..?” His voice drifted as he calmed.

“…What meeting are you having again?” Ridge tried to hold back a squeak in his voice as Xephos let out an infuriated noise. “What? I really don’t know and you can’t blame me. It seems anytime you’re not in class or studying you’re having meetings!”

“That’s because I like to actually contribute to the wellbeing of our campus unlike _you_.” The rebuttal hissed out from between Xephos’ lips with more malice than intended. “Being part of the clubs committee means I have to monitor all clubs workings. Be thankful I’m not the poor sap who got stuck with the budget dealings this year. Can you imagine having to divvy out all the school’s club finances and dealing with people who practically demand more funding? You get a lot of hate for being that guy.”

Xephos’ rambles cocooned Ridge into a state of one word responses, delirious from the bombardment. “Mmmm, that’s great and all Xeph but I think those nachos that I was going to graciously leave for you are calling my name.”

“Graciously? Ridge, those were my leftovers in the first place! You can’t _graciously_ leave them for me when they weren’t yours to offer in the first place!”

“Well good because I’m not leaving them now. They’re in the microwave as we speak.”

Xephos belligerently tore the Bluetooth from his ear to let out an animalistic shriek. Fumbling about with exploding nerves he held the device back to his ear, “Ridge, I’m done. You’re stressing me out way too much.” Brash beeping noises from presumably the microwave melted out from the earpiece forcing Xephos to bellow again, “Just fuck off Ridge!”

Scrambling resonated from the other side of the call, “Xeph I-“

“No just fuck off. I’m done.”

“I just- alright… lov-“ Xephos didn’t bother ending the calling, immediately pocketing his phone and Bluetooth without a second thought. He felt no guilt for ending the conversation without hearing the last piece from Ridge, feeling as if his last words were only going to be sentimental to deter his anger.

Turning off the volume on his phone and straightening his hair one last time Xephos took in a deep breath before pushing open the large double doors. He thanked every omnipotent being possible as he was able to sneak into the bowed lecture room practically unnoticed by the murmuring students scattered amongst the seats. He skittered quickly along to the podium surrounded by the familiar student body before setting his satchel down, finally feeling as if he had space in his lungs again.

“Ah Xephos! Thank goodness you’re here!” A voice thick with panic sprouted out from the people in front of him, “We can’t get the projector to work!”

Xephos nodded to his stocky friend as he slid behind the desk, “Honeydew, did you break it already?” He laughed as the other overreacted with fast points of a finger to the tall man with green hair, “It couldn’t have been Smiff. He’s banned from being anywhere close to school equipment after his mess with the chem labs.”

With crossed arms and a patronizing look Smiff shook his head, proceeding to go into wretched detail about how Honeydew’s lunch pastry practically melted into the heating projector. Xephos tried not groan loud enough for the audience to hear as he extracted the plastic top from the machine, seeing exactly how much damage was done. “Can somebody get me-“

“Paper towel?” Nano’s sweet voice perked up as she handed the flustered man a cushioned roll.

“God Nano you’re an angel in disguise,” Gladly accepting the roll Xephos ripped off a sheet and stuck a hand into the projector, blindly searching for any food remnants. “And why couldn’t any of you have done this before I got here?”

The students looked at one another with quizzical eyes before shrugging one by one, “We thought it was a serious technical problem and you’re usually the computer guy so…”

Sighing Xephos ripped off another piece of paper towel, “Just start already, I’ll get this up before we need it.” He balled up the dirtied paper towel, tossing it ooze and all at Honeydew to dispose of.

Cracking his knuckles Smiff glided in front of the occupied podium, “Alright everyone, thank you for taking time out of your day to be here. We have a lot of things to cover so let’s get started shall we?”

With a full sigh Xephos smiled as he listened to the meeting’s progression. He was finally beginning to admire Smiff’s talent of stalling as he stared back into the inner workings of the projector.

“Do you think it will be okay?” Honeydew whispered out the side of his mouth, keeping his eyes forward.

“Yeah, think it’ll be fine. Count yourself lucky you won’t have to pay the school for damages.” The courteous pat on the back shook Xephos’ lanky frame more than intended as he clicked the casing back together, “Plug it back in will you?”

Daring a look up into the crowd Xephos tried not to swallow dramatically as he felt as if each pair of eyes locked onto him. He could easily distinguish which club was which as they commonly sat together; planning to make strategies on how veto changes they had any small distaste for.

As his pants pocket flew into an unexpected shake Xephos mentally cursed for not fully turning his phone off. He took a step back to stand beside Nano, gawkily shuffling to pull out his phone. Trying to angle his actions to be out of sight he slid his thumb across the screen, heavily frowning at the name that reflected back at him.

Drawing a deep breath he opened the text message from Ridge:

_“Sorry Xeph. Didn’t mean to upset you by eating your food.”_

Rolling his eyes Xephos checked the crowd again, nodding to Honeydew who caught his eye. They traded quick smiles as they both drifted their attention to Smiff who was now busied with the repaired projector.

Using Nano’s back again to hide his actions Xephos hastily typed out a reply:

_“At meeting. F off.”_

Hitting send Xephos tried to pocket his device just to feel it go off again:

_“You should wear those pants more often. They look good on you.”_

Tightening his muscles in a startling instant Xephos uttered an expletive as he turned back to the audience. Remembering to look for the accustomed group congregations and spot the significant differences the tall man straightened out, finally switching off his phone.

He could make out the rare group outcast usually being freshmen students and the once in a while curious professor but still searched for the cause of his shock. Soon giving up, believing he had been had, Xephos looked back to Nano, giving her a thankful smile as she shook her head in jest. Xephos knew she would poke fun at him after the meeting but at that moment he was thankful she understood.

While the conference progressed each member of the committee took their turn up at the podium, saying their piece and addressing their matters of the year. Even as Xephos had his turn he still couldn’t find Ridge in the mass of people, laughing again as he labeled it as pure paranoia.

Relief swept over him as Smiff took over the closing statements, taking questions with the help of the other members. Xephos found it odd as Smiff had the stand, directing and answer questions, feeling as though his leader status was estranged with his fogged mind.

He plastered on a simple smile and looked over the crowd again. He almost couldn’t believe things had gone off with only the slight bump in the road at the beginning, feeling much prouder than his previous chaotic years. He almost drifted into a completely at eased state before he found the wind swept auburn hair.

Xephos’ fingers twitched as he tried not to vastly change his expression, his brain practically sparking as a gapped grin was shot his way. He wondered how he could not have thought to look at the front rows, as he now currently flowed with a sense of anxiety, doubting his every move.

He wanted desperately to direct his eyes to the ground, to wait till the end of the meeting, not utter another word and pretend he never saw the other. He almost found comfort in the floor tiles under his feet, they didn’t seem to stare back at him or judge, they just wanted to sit and wait with him. Smiff’s words were lost in Xephos’ thoughts as he continued to stand stalk still, he knew Ridge would remain sitting but somewhere in the back of his mind he couldn’t help but worry.

Finding his smile again Xephos looked up, his sight attracting straight to Ridge. He almost felt a surge of anger return as he looked at the goofy grin. Ridge looked far too comfortable in the snug lecture seat, his legs loosely crossed and one hand held up his head. Ridge noticed the attention he was receiving and pouted his lips, kissing the air with a wink.

Looking away with a silent huff Xephos crossed his arms as if to shield against the airborne affection. He squinted his eyes, feeling his body heat up as he failed to contain his thoughts. He darted his eyes back, picking out the badly molded hand gesture Ridge bared. Xephos shook his head slowly with a light chuckle, laughing at the poorly formed heart.

Ridge’s grin doubled in size as he brought his hands to his chest, mouthing lost words. Staring down through his eyelashes Xephos tried to keep his own smile as tiny as possible.

Putting his attention back to Ridge he tried to make out the repeated words. He still couldn’t understand them even as they were spoken slower for a third time. Watching the other dramatically sigh he inspected each new movement carefully: the finger Ridge placed on his chest, the clumsily formed heart his hands made and the single finger he directed at Xephos.

Twisting his lips again Xephos caught the mimed message, the silent words pushing his chest to sputter his breaths. Summoning his comeback Xephos stuck out the tip of his tongue, with an impish crumple of his nose.

He could practically feel the warm joy radiating off of Ridge as the man fixed his hands to the side of his face, wiggling his fingers as he crossed his eyes. Hardly containing a laugh at the childish scene Xephos pushed the envelope further and stretched his lips out broadly, flashing his top row of teeth.

Ridge smacked his knee, letting sharp quick giggles slip out. Puffing his cheeks and forcing his hands under his chin Ridge impossibly boggled his eyes in an odd direction.

Letting his mouth snap open in a full smile Xephos readied his hands to answer the strange face, halting his actions as an elbow poked into his ribs.

“Xephos, you got like a bug in your shirt?” Nano stared up at the dazed man, “People in the audience probably think you’re possessed or something.” Her whisper shot directly into Xephos’ mind, shaking him awake from his day dreaming.

Letting his vision clear his eyes wandered away from their focus on Ridge to look around the crowd. Some students were already pointing his way and laughing to one another but even more had their eyebrows almost permanently raised his way.

Flinging a hand up to his face Xephos let his fingers dance quickly around before finding a comfortable way to hold his head, trying to hide away from the stares. Eyeing Ridge over again he could feel heat return to his face again, watching how each sudden supressed laugh rippled through him.

Xephos found his phone in his pants pocket for a second time, giving it time as he waited for it to turn back on. Using Nano’s lenience Xephos flicked back to his messaging screen, rapidly typing to Ridge:

_“When this is done your ass is mine.”_

His eyes whipped back to Ridge as he saw the man smile, letting his fingers leisurely type out a reply:

_“My ass is always yours <3 “_


End file.
